Intohimo

Us; The Hollows

Written by: TL on 17/05/2009 20:30:54

Some two years ago, Intohimo were among the frontrunners of the Swedish screamo scene's head charge into existence. Along with albums and EP's from Adept, herbrightskies and Chemical Vocation, Intohimo dropped their own debut LP "Failures, Failures, Failures And Hope" and effectively turned some heads in the European scene, although arguably not enough considering how good it sounded back then. Their countrymen have now all returned for their second rounds in the limelight, and with Intohimo finally bringing us their sophomore "Us; The Hollows" it's time to find out if they're staying the course to greatness tread by Adept and HBS, or if they've stumbled like Chemical Vocation.

To quickly dispel that last thought, there's no need to worry about Intohimo going pop punk on us. In point of fact, if you're a fan and you've been worried that the band was going to change, rest assured that they've barely changed a bit. This is still by the books screamo, played exactly the way UnderOATH prescribed when they blew up back on "They're Only Chasing Safety". Trust me, the similarity is stunning. However, it is very very hard not to feel like the world has moved ahead of Intohimo when listening to "Us; The Hollows", simply because of how close the competition has been in the screamo scene on the other side of the pond while they've been gone. The bleak soundscape and the marauding screams have simply been heard before time and time again, and us fans of that kind of thing have gotten accustomed to not having it served without something additional on the side.

It is this 'side dish' that I feel Intohimo have neglected to prepare on "Us; The Hollows". Much like herbrightskies, they've extended focus on the clean vocals, possibly to give their songs more substance and move away from a screaming-for-the-sake-of-screaming impression. The problem is that they don't write as good songs as hbs do these days, and somewhere in the transformation they seem to have also lost their sense for the simple-yet-effective arrangements that dominated their previous album. The catchy moments are simply too few and far in between if you ask me, even if they do pull a good punch when they do come around.

So to sum things up, "Us; The Hollows" amounts to an album that will keep you happy if you're merely on the prowl for more solid 'old fashioned' screamo goodness, but if you're looking for stellar songs or some original challenging of the genre's current state, then you will be as I am, a bit disappointed with Intohimo.

Download: Among Hollow Heroes, A Home For The Homeless, Siblings
For The Fans Of: herbrightskies, Akissforjersey, Scary Kids Scaring Kids,
Listen: myspace.com/intohimo

Release Date: 29.04.2009
The Unit

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